New Delhi, Nov 08, 2018: "Demonetisation was a planned conspiracy. This scam was a shrewd scheme to whiten the black money of Prime Minister's suit-booted friends. Nothing was innocent in this scandal. Deriving any other meaning to this exercise would be an insult to the nation," said Congress president Rahul Gandhi in a tweet, on the second anniversary of demonetisation on Thursday. He launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by terming decision as a "planned conspiracy" and "criminal financial scam" allegedly aimed at helping his "suit-booted friends" to "whiten" their black money.

Later in a statement, Gandhi said that the day November 8 would forever go down in the history of India as a day of infamy. "India will discover, no matter how the government tries to hide it, that demonetisation wasn't just an ill-conceived and poorly executed economic policy with innocent intent, but a carefully planned, criminal financial scam," he said in a statement, issued by the All India Congress Committee (AICC).

"Demonetisation was a tragedy...Demonetisation is unique in the history of our tragedies because it was a self-inflicted, suicidal attack that destroyed millions of lives and ruined thousand of India's small businesses. The worst hits by demonestisation were the poorest of the poor, who were forced to queue for days, to exchange their meagre savings," he added.

The Congress chief also claimed that more than a hundred and twenty Indians lost their lives in those queues lined up to exchange the banned notes outside the banks. He added, "Prime Minister Modi's demonetisation cost India over one and a half million jobs and wiped out at least one per cent from our Gross Domestic Product (GDP)."

Gandhi scion also intensified his attack on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley by calling him "incompetent." He said, "On the second anniversary of the Prime Minister's monumental blunder, the Government's spin-doctors, including our incompetent Finance Minister, have the unenviable task of defending an indefensible, criminal policy."

A few hours back, the Congress stated that the exercise which the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre undertook in 2016 had tarnished the image of India globally.

Holding Prime Minister Narendra Modi directly responsible for the ‘wrong’ and ‘insensitive’ decision to demonetize currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 two years ago, the Congress on Thursday said people of the country would give a suitable reply to the BJP in the coming assembly elections and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Talking to reporters here, AICC senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said,’’ On this day two years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a wrong and insensitive decision. Whatever happened in the country after that, the onus of all of that falls directly on the Prime Minister.

Despite having forced 11 crore people to stand in queue outside banks and ATMs, hurting poor people and fafrmers and destroying small and medium industries, the PM and the BJP continues to defend the decision. The people will give a suitable reply to the BJP in the coming assembly elections to five states and in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.’’

Mr Sharma said that while announcing demonetization, the PM had put forward four reasons for announcing the decision including removal of black money, ending fake currency, putting an end to terrorism and putting an end to cash transactions..

As for the number of cash transactions, the percentage of these , which stood at 4 per cent before demonetization, has increased to 80 pr cent. Is the PM now willing to acknowledge his mistake and apologise to the country. The Indians will never forgive Mr Modi for the decision to demonetize currency. Today is the day of accountability for the PM ,’’Mr Sharma said.

‘’Two years later, all the four objective that the PM had set out for demonetisaiton, have turned out to be false. In August this year, the RBI, in its report, said 99.3 per cent of the currency notes had returned to the banking system.

On November 8, 2016, the Centre had declared Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes as non-legal and introduced new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes. Since then, various opposition parties have been highly critical of the Centre's move, while the members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies have backed the decision.

On the second anniversary of demonetisation on Thursday, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley posted a strong defense of demonetisation, saying that the note ban had a huge impact on formalising the Indian economy. of India; Notebandi;Arvind Kejriwal;

Demonetisation was a self inflicted wound on Indian economy: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said demonetisation undertaken two years ago by the BJP led NDA government was a self inflicteddeep wound on Indian economy.

'Though the list of financial scams of the Modi govt is endless, demonetisation was a self inflicteddeep wound on Indian economy which even two years later remains a mystery why the country was pushed into such a disaster ?' Mr Kejriwal tweeted.

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